"Encyclopedia of Life" -Online 'Macroscope' Launched

“The launch of the Encyclopedia of Life will have a profound and creative effect in science. It aims not only to summarize all that we know of Earth’s life forms, but also to accelerate the discovery of the vast array that remain unknown. This great effort promises to lay out new directions for research in every branch of biology.” EOL Video

Edward O. Wilson, Harvard evolutionary biologist and naturalist.

Like a modern-day Aristotle, Harvard's famed biologist, E.O. Wilson, unveiled the first 30,000 pages of the massive online Encyclopedia of Life yesterday at the prestigious Technology, Entertainment and Design (TED) Conference in Monterey, California.

Intended as a tool for scientists and policymakers and a fascinating resource for anyone interested in the living world, the EOL is being developed by a unique collaboration between scientists and the general public. By putting information about the world's species in one place, EOL hopes to accelerate our understanding of the world’s remaining biodiversity.

The EOL will be a microscope in reverse, or “macroscope,” helping users to discern large-scale patterns. By aggregating for analysis information on Earth’s estimated 1.8 million known species, scientists say the EOL could, for example, help map vectors of human disease, reveal mysteries behind longevity, suggest substitute plant pollinators for a swelling list of places where honeybees no longer provide that service, and foster strategies to slow the spread of invasive species.

Most importantly, the EOL will be a foundational resource for helping to conserve the species already known and to identify millions of additional species that haven’t yet been described or named. At its core is the knowledge about the world’s species that has been discovered by scientists over the last 250 years.

EOL will illuminate patterns in biodiversity, promising knowledge comparable in impact to that gained after the microscope’s invention in the 1600s. The EOL “macroscope” will have a catalytic effect on comparative biology, ecology and related fields. It will also be the ultimate online field guide, complete with links to DNA barcoding and other information of interest and use to everyone from professional scientists to birdwatchers and gardeners.

Among the potential applications of the EOL:

    * Tracing the relation between changes in animal and plant populations and climate;

    * Mapping the distribution of human disease vectors, such as crows, mosquitoes and the West Nile virus;

    * Comparison of the life spans of related species – a prelude to lab research into reasons for human aging;

    * Port inspections of ballast water for invasive species, assisted by links to molecular DNA barcode reference information;

    * Assist in field research and dramatically shorten the time required to authenticate or describe new mammals, birds, bugs, plants, bacteria and other species discovered by scientists anywhere in the world;

    * Revolutionize teaching and learning of the life sciences for all ages;

    * Contribute to timely and informed environmental management decisions by professionals and citizen environmental managers alike.

Drawing upon its collaboration with the Catalog of Life and Tree of Life projects, EOL’s infrastructure now includes placeholder pages for 1 million species, of which 30,000 have been populated with detailed information derived from comprehensive, authoritative compilations available for some taxonomic groups (e.g., FishBase, AmphibiaWeb, Solanaceae Source). In addition, about two dozen highly developed multimedia pages are presented as examples of what to expect in time throughout the EOL.

“EOL is a good example of the way the World Wide Web can be used innovatively to assemble diverse kinds of information in an easy-to-use, ever-growing compendium. It can accommodate almost any kind of information about species and, unlike a published book, can be updated instantly,” says Dr. Edwards.

Posted by Casey Kazan. Adapted from an EOL release.

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